Der Mond
by Pluperfect Pear
Summary: Mmm, werewolves. P:


O... kay. Guten Tag, alle! Wie geht's? Heh, aren't I a blast from the past or what? It's been INTENSE on my end. This machine I call a computer, it had finally taken a dive. Hardware dumping is not a good thing. Anyway, a new story from me. I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing, even though I should be  
working on Onsterfelijkbald. In the meantime, enjoy this ditty. Danke schön:)

Tuuli for some time now had been the "new member" of the Haglklaue pack. He wouldn't have normally been considered such an outcast, had he been born a human. He was a werewolf, despite the fact that he was a Khajiit. A Khajiit, the bipedal feline of Tamriel, contracted Sinius Lupinius upon his arrival to Solstheim and became a werewolf, the bipedal canine of the North.

Most other wolves acknowledged his existence, and they never directly ostracized Tuuli. Tuuli may have suffered a great amount of oppression at the hands of the wolves before they contracted lycanthropy, but the disease gave the different species a common bond. The humans were now the beasts they had enslaved, and could not treat Tuuli any differently than themselves, wolf or not. Despite this great triumph, however, there was still an underlying sense of superiority among the other wolves. At night each and every one of them were wolves, but during the day the schisms of society largely dominated Tuuli's treatment.

The fact that Tuuli banded with the Haglklaue pack could be attributed to the aforementioned theories. Haglklaue wolves dwelled in the icy seclusion of the Moestring Mountains. Their xenophobia rarely allowed them to leave the mountains, and the nil numbers of humans brave enough to venture among the icy peaks made survival through the night an unattainable dream for some. Needless to say, the Haglklaue wolves didn't much care about the fate of Tuuli, where he came from or what race he was. To them, he was just... "new".

The greatest source of strife for Tuuli were the Hvitland and Iskeifer wolves. The bloodlines of they were primarily Imperial, Dunmer and Altmer, and their superiority complexes of humanity still lingered in their wolf forms. To make matters worse, both packs lived in the Isinfier Plains and Brodir Grove regions (Respectfully), and during the day many of them lived and worked in the colony of Raven Rock. Some were even soldiers stationed at Fort Frostmoth; they had been called to duty, became werewolves and refused to admit their plight out of shame. The cosmopolitan demeanor those two packs spurred their complacency toward Tuuli, but none had ever tried to lord over him.

The next two packs to bother Tuuli were the Dyphoelzer of the Histraang Forest and the Kaldwasser of the Felsaad Coast. Tuuli's race was never an issue with those two packs. The bulk of them were outcast Skaal, renegade Nords and scattered Dunmer and Orc with chips on their shoulders, and their rebellious natures made them believe they were superior to all packs. Like the Haglklaue, these two packs tended to their own affairs for the most part, although they shared information, goods and territory with one another. Many were seeing a merge of these two packs, no matter how strongly they chose to deny it.

Tuuli was clearly different from the run-of-the-mill werewolves. When in his wolf form he was considerably smaller, if not more feminine-looking than the other wolves. Despite his small stature, he was stronger than many of the human wolves, presumably because Khajiits had to bear the burdens of humanity for eons. His pelt was light gray and dappled with beige patches. Oddly enough, his fur retained its unique pattern during his transformation, and his whiskers also remained. There were several runts with strange-colored pelts in the various packs, but those whiskers were what set Tuuli apart. If anything they were the bane of his existence, but even still he didn't waste time in clipping them. They'd grow right back anyway.

Tuuli had gone to Raven Rock earlier that morning to "facilitate his feline needs". In other words, he was going to get a drink and catch up with gossip at the tavern, and then maybe stop by the trader. While at the tavern he ordered a Cyrodiilic brandy, which was uncommon for him. Normally, Tuuli barely had the change to spare for shein or mazte. In one night he could slaughter enough adventurers to buy a small house, but the next morning when he would return for the gold very few of the bodies could be located, thanks to the snowfall covering their corpses. He'd gone several days without a drink, hoping to celebrate. What, Tuuli wasn't quite sure of just yet.

"Feline!" a mans voice next to Tuuli said harshly.

Tuuli turned and saw a Legionnaire looking down his nose at him. The man was named Cassius Avitus, and he was a member of the Iskeifer pack. Cassius was part of the wealthy upper class in the hierarchy of Imperial soldiers, and he certainly looked it. He didn't see any battle, and his templar cuirass and boots were only worn to heighten his authoritative appearance. Underneath his armor he wore exquisite silks along with several pieces of jewelry, and covering his entire ensemble was a heavy suede traveling cloak. His brown hair was tied back and blue eyes looked down indignantly at Tuuli from his high-cheekboned face.

Cassius sat on the stool next to Tuuli and ordered wine fermented from holly and comberries, "It'd do you a bit of good to report to the Mortag Glacier once you've transformed." Cassius whispered to Tuuli.  
"Who is Tuuli to 'report', as you put it, serjo? Why would it benefit him?" Tuuli took a moment to glare at Cassius, and then he stared down into his brandy.

"I take it you haven't noticed the moon. It's been out all day. It's crimson! Incarnadine even. Reports from the Kaldwasser say there's a great pillar of fire roaring in the middle of Lake Fjalding, and my own pack has seen a multitude of horker massacred along the lakes' northern shore. The sunwolf wishes us to gather so that we may take part in Jaektbegynnen ceremony. It isn't very often Hircine selects our humble island to hold his Hunt on."

Cassius finished his wine and left the tavern as if nothing had happened. Tuuli soon followed, unaware of the sets of eyes upon him. Nevertheless, Tuuli donned new clothing, restocked his quiver and left the colony. As he went north Tuuli encountered several of the Dyphoelzer. He relayed what Cassius had told him, and while most ran to spread the word, some of the more distant wolves went hurriedly to the Lake to see the pillar of fire for themselves. There was at least one wolf from each tribe that avoided Tuuli for the sole purpose of his silver arrows. Tuuli could be wounded by any silver weapon and not be poisoned like his brethren. Mind you, he never used his silver arrows on the other wolves, he never even shot a regular wolf. The main targets for his attacks were plague beasts, reiklings and rogue smugglers. To ice the proverbial cake he even has a silver shortbow, just for kicks. Needless to say, his choice of weapons weren't favorites.

It was dusk when Tuuli made it to Haglklaue territory. He walked over to the failed airship, now a permanent part of the landscape, and threw his belongings in a barrel. He told everyone that was present about what Cassius had said, and then inquired about Jaektbegynnen. His pack were nothing but wizened old Nords, and the bulk of them guffawed like Tuuli was an idiot; sadly, there weren't many younger wolves that knew of the ritual. Once they had had their fun the veterans chose Vromme, the self-appointed pack orator, to tell of the ceremony.

Jaektbegynnen was a sacred rite; the werewolf equivalent of the Skaal's Ristaag. When the moons ran red with the blood of Hircine's prey, the werewolves the world over would celebrate, regardless of weather or not their nation had been the selected hunting ground. Like the Hunt itself, there was one wolf born every era that hunted in the light of day in his wolf form. The ceremony was strictly to be kept intraspecies, and Hircine made it so the purity of the wolves remained intact by having the aforementioned "sunwolf" preside over the ceremony.

In ancient times wolves would commute in droves to the nation that had been selected to watch Jaektbegynnen, but the constrictions of modern times made the mass exodus impossible. Most wolves would merely celebrate with their own rituals, dances and practices, but the ceremony truly became elaborate when it concerned the nation selected for the Hunt. A large fire would be made, and when night fell the sunwolf would appear, elevated above the other wolves in status and wearing mismatched animal skins and a skull that resembled Hircine's. The sunwolf would recite ancient scriptures and chant while dancing around the fire. Then, all wolves present would fan out, following the sunwolf, and engage in a mass hunt.

It all sounded very silly to Tuuli. He ran with his pack shortly after Vromme had finished telling his story; shortly after night had fallen and his comrades had transformed. Jaektbegynnen didn't sound all that impressive to him, and he figured he could wait patiently until the actual hunt. Haglklaue was the first entire pack to arrive within the Glacier. There were scant members of the other packs already settled, among them Cassius, Tuuli noted. The group waited for around an hour, and not long after Haglklaue had arrived the other packs appeared, not in slim numbers but in bulking masses. They all appeared in their respective groups once they arrived, but as part of tradition the packs separated and mingled with one another around the fire. An excited old Kaldwasser had taken his place next to Tuuli and was talking animatedly.

A hush fell over the crowd. Tuuli looked toward the fire and could see a path being cleared in the throng of wolves, and a human figure had emerged. As Vromme has said, the sunwolf was clad in what appeared to be a menagerie of plague wolf pelts, bones and other trinkets. He was barefoot, and around his ankles he wore strings of stones and shells. On his head he wore a wolf's skull with what appeared to be horker tusks fastened to mimic Hircine. With him he carried a spear that looked like stalhrim in the firelight.

The sunwolf didn't feel a need to announce a prelude to the Jaektbegynnen, and right away he fell into frenzied chanting. Tuuli, and no doubtedly many of the other wolves, couldn't understand a word of it. The scriptures being recited were in ancient Nordic, but even still the wolves fell into a trance. In their mind's eye they could see bands of their kin running through tall, dense forests; chasing down prey while the moon shone full and bright above them. The chanting began to take on a definite tune and rhythm, and the sunwolf began to dance as Vromme had said. He hopped and spun in circles as if possessed, all the while twirling and swinging the massive spear about him. Many of the wolves had begun to howl, and when things were at their height the sunwolf had broken into a run.

Once he had passed the rest of the wolves fanned out and swept the continent. There were few that could keep up with the sunwolf's pace, and Tuuli was among them. He was still entranced by the chanting, but was semi-coherent nonetheless. The band was heading south southeastward, to Raven Rock. Before any of them knew it, their howling had alerted the patrons of the colony to investigate. The band of wolves fell upon Raven Rock with a force unlike any seen before. The sunwolf swung his spear at the local guards, leaving the rest free to attack the civilians. Claws and teeth tore through indiscriminate flesh, leaving the snow red beneath their feet. As quickly as they had come the band was gone; headed east for Fort Frostmoth, to hunt until the sun drained their energy.


End file.
